250 THE WEALTH OF THE SEA 



eel-grass near the surface ; when disturbed, they drop 

 quickly to the bottom. The bay scallop is short lived, 

 seldom living more than two years. Sea scallops prob- 

 ably live somewhat longer, although no one has accu- 

 rately determined their average length of life. 



Curiously, the shallow water scallop is hermaphro- 

 ditic, each individual being both male and female. 

 The spermatozoa and ova are discharged alternately, 

 so that there is little danger of self-fertilization. The 

 young scallops grow rapidly' reaching maturity in 

 less than a year. Comparatively few live to spawn 

 the second year. 



Bay scallops are mainly taken in dredges operated 

 either from a type of sail-boat called a cat-boat, or 

 from a motor-boat. Six or more dredges are dragged 

 along the bottom by a single boat. When the dredges 

 are hauled in, the catch is dumped on a culling board. 

 The catches are often very interesting ; sometimes the 

 dredge contains fish, lobsters, crabs, tin cans, bottles, 

 stones, bits of wreckage, and so forth, though, when 

 the boats are over good grounds, but little trash is 

 hauled up with the scallops. While the dredges are 

 being pulled back over the grounds, the rubbish is 

 separated from the scallops, which are then trans- 

 ferred to bags or dumped into the cockpit of the 

 boat. 



The fisherman takes his catch of scallops to his 

 shed, where the scallops are opened, and the "eyes" 

 (adductor muscles) are removed. The remainder of 

 the scallop is either discarded or used as bait. Prej- 

 udice is curious, for it dictates that only the adduc- 



